> Whenever you do the real world calculation for what an electric cars CO2 profile looks like it turns out to be the same as a gasoline car unless your country is majority nuclear.
> So much of the modern world depends on our mastery over materials (to make a precision screw, you need a precision-machined harder material—diamond / titanium—to work on a softer material—steel), and our ability to turn rotary motion to linear motion (it's stupidly difficult to reliably precision-machine a harder material without even more precise linear + rotary motion—lathe/CNC machine). Hence, a bootstrap problem.
Steel is hardenable (or rather, some steels are hardenable), you can change its hardness through the specific application of heating and cooling. So you can make a crude tool with relatively soft steel, harden it, and use it to make a more precise steel tool (again machine soft, then harden). This does make the bootstrapping problem a bit easier, I think. Although not easy in the absolute.
Sure lots of organizations have unique capabilities, and SpaceX is one of those! Better to bring home Hubble than let it burn up once it's no longer operational. I definitely rate inspiration much higher than 'dubious' :)
Not at all true: https://www.carboncounter.com/
US-specific but you can even pick a state and it will use the generation mix of that state